Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain

Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain , KCB , KCVO , KPM (born January 13, 1856 , † May 28, 1944 ) was an officer in the British Army and later Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary ; Criticism after the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916 led to his resignation. He is credited with inventing the snooker variant of billiards while serving in Jabalpur , British India , in 1875 .

Life

Chamberlain comes from a family with a military tradition; he was the son of Charles Francis Falcon Chamberlain and nephew of Neville Bowles Chamberlain . He was educated at Brentwood School and the Royal Military College Sandhurst.

Military career

Chamberlain was made a lieutenant in the Devonshire Regiment on August 9, 1873 . Exactly one year later, he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1878, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War , he joined the staff of Field Marshal Sir Frederick Roberts , who was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in Afghanistan . After being wounded in the Battle of Kandahar , he served with Roberts at Udagamandalam between 1881 and 1884 . On August 9, 1885, he was promoted to captain, on November 7, 1885, appointed to Brevet Major and on July 1, 1887 to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel.

In 1890 he became military minister in the government of Kashmir . He was appointed Brevet Colonel on January 6, 1894. His actual rank was still that of a captain, and it was not until August 9, 1894 that he was promoted to major. On February 6, 1899, he was made a colonel on staff in Delhi .

After the outbreak of the Second Boer War , Lord Roberts was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in South Africa. Chamberlain followed this in December 1899 as first aide-de-camp and private secretary and was formally praised by Roberts (" mentioned in dispatches ", March 31, 1900). In 1900 he was also named Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).

Royal Irish Constabulary

In 1900 Chamberlain was appointed Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), the armed police force for all of Ireland (with the exception of Dublin ). These police forces were directly subordinate to the Irish administration at Dublin Castle ; in charge of gathering information and maintaining order, they became the government's eyes and ears. He formally resigned from the army on November 1, 1901. As part of the royal visit to Ireland in 1903 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), in 1911 Chamberlains was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO), and in April 1914 Knight of Grace in the Venerable Order of Saint John and was awarded the King's Police Medal during the 1915 New Year Honors. Chamberlain's years at the RIC coincided with the rise of a number of political, cultural and sporting organizations whose common goal was to manifest the diversity of Ireland from the United Kingdom; this development culminated in 1913 with the establishment of the Irish Volunteers .

In a report to the Chief Secretary for Ireland , Augustine Birrell , and the Undersecretary for Ireland , Sir Matthew Nathan , Chamberlain warned against the volunteers who were planning a revolt and the proclamation of Irish independence. But when Nathan showed him a letter from the Army Commander of Southern Ireland in April 1916, which reported a gun landing on the southwest coast and an Easter uprising, both of them doubted whether there was any basis for the rumor. The Easter Rising began on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916. It lasted six days and only ended after much of Dublin's boulevard was destroyed by artillery fire. Although the Royal Commission for the 1916 Rebellion ( Hardinge Commission) absolved the RIC of all guilt, Chamberlain was eventually forced to resign after continued criticism.

Next life

After his retirement, Chamberlain lived in Ascot, England . On March 19, 1938, he published a letter in The Field in which he claimed to have developed the game of snooker in the officers' mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in Jabalpur , British India , in 1875 . This variant was supported by the author Compton Mackenzie in a letter in The Billiard Player in 1939 and has been recognized ever since.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes the circumstances under which the name of the new game came about as follows:

"While serving at Jabalpur in 1875 Chamberlain developed a new variation of black pool by introducing colored balls into the game. It was dubbed snooker — a derogatory nickname given to first-year cadets studying at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich that Chamberlain had heard about from a young Royal Artillery subaltern visiting the mess. Chamberlain later retorted to a fellow player who had failed to pot a colored ball: "Why, you're a regular snooker". While explaining the term to his fellow officers Chamberlain, to mollify the officer concerned, remarked that they were all "snookers at the game" and the name snooker or snooker's pool immediately stuck. "

“While serving in Jabalpur in 1875, Chamberlain developed a new twist on the Black Pool by introducing colored balls into the game. It was called snooker - a derogatory nickname given to cadets during their first year at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, which Chamberlain had learned about through a young artillery officer visiting the casino. Chamberlain later responded to a teammate who had failed to punch a colored ball: "Well, you are a real snooker to me!" Chamberlain explained the term to his fellow officers, and to appease the officer in question, remarked that they were all "snookers in this game" and the name Snooker or Snooker's Pool stuck with it. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} T. R. Moreman, 'Chamberlain, Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald (1856-1944) (subscription required), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, May 2006, doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 73766 . Retrieved February 11, 2008
2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 24909, HMSO, London, December 3, 1880, p. 6539 ( PDF , English).
3. ↑ Peter Ainsworth, The Origin of Snooker: The Neville Chamberlain Story ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , International Billiards and Snooker Federation 
4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 25096, HMSO, London, April 18, 1882, p. 1741 ( PDF , English).
5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 25520, HMSO, London, October 16, 1885, p. 4787 ( PDF , English).
6. ↑ London Gazette . No. 25527, HMSO, London, 6 November 1885, p. 5081 ( PDF , English).
7. ^ Hart's Army list, 1901
8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 26591, HMSO, London, January 22, 1895, p. 1741 ( PDF , English).
9. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27085, HMSO, London, June 2, 1899, p. 3521 ( PDF , English).
10. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27146, HMSO, London, December 22, 1899, p. 8542 ( PDF , English).
11. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27282, HMSO, London, February 8, 1901, p. 844 ( PDF , English).
12. ^ WJ McCormack, The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture , Blackwell, 1999, 0-631-22817-9, p. 477
13. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27380, HMSO, London, November 26, 1901, p. 8095 ( PDF , English).
14. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27586, HMSO, London, 11 August 1903, p. 5058 ( PDF , English).
15. ↑ London Gazette . No. 28818, HMSO, London, December 29, 1914, p. 2874 ( PDF , English).
16. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 29024, HMSO, London, April 3, 1914, p. 4 ( PDF , English).
17. ↑ Brian Feeney, Sinn Féin. A Hundred Turbulent Years , O'Brien, 2002, 0-86278-695-9, p. 38
18. ↑ Michael Foy and Brian Barton, The Easter Rising , Sutton, 2004, 0-7509-3433-6, p. 51
19. ^ Leon Ó Broin, Dublin Castle and the 1916 Rising , Sidgwick & Jackson, 1966, p. 79